“as linguists decipher elephant language, they are puzzled….” allgebrah, ThreadReaderApp
‘Extremely yellow’ creature caught off Pacific island. See the new ‘duckbill’ species News&Observer
To conserve or cull? Life in Australia’s crocodile capital BBC
Stand Out: How to Prevent Obeying in Advance 3 Quarks Daily
Climate
India cites lack of technology, infrastructure as barriers to fight climate change S&P Global
The Time Jimmy Carter Probably Saved The World And Almost Nobody Noticed IFL Science
Syndemics
HMPV outbreak in China? Amid viral videos and govt ambiguity, know symptoms and precautions WION
* * * H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted To Know Astral Codex Ten
When Seasonal Influenza Goes Rogue Avian Flu Diary
Bird flu is so bad that Japan is running out of land to bury chickens Straits Times
* * * COVID 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting Science. “What did we learn?”
China?
Chinese war games system sees surprise US attack on PLA carrier group in South China Sea South China Morning Post
US consensus on countering China will keep Quad relevant under Trump: experts South China Morning Post
China’s central bank plans policy overhaul as pressure mounts on economy FT
China says committed to taking more practical steps to further enhance SCO cooperation CGTN
The Koreas
South Korean presidential guards prevent arrest of impeached Yoon after tense stand-off Reuters. Commentary:
The military unit responsible for residential security that prevented the arrest of President Yoon Seok-yoel.
"This unit, which appears to be the capital defense command, is obstructing the execution of the arrest warrant," an official from the investigation unit said pic.twitter.com/oR9wfnF2Ya
— Warzone Observer (@WarzoneObserver) January 3, 2025
Amid martial law-induced crisis, Blinken to visit South Korea Anadolu Agency
* * * Pilot at airport of South Korea’s Jeju Air crash says he ‘assumed’ concrete mound was dirt South China Morning Post. Commentary:
2️⃣ The localizer for Runway 19 was installed on a concrete mound reinforced with a 30cm-thick slab, located 251m from the runway end. Despite being outside the "terminal safety zone," this structure became the disaster’s epicenter. pic.twitter.com/ACRee0LrmE
— Antony Ochieng,KE✈️ (@Turbinetraveler) January 2, 2025
Syraqistan
Israel struggles to deter escalating attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels as other fronts calm AP
‘Stop sharing now’: IDF reservists’ posts are being twisted into Israeli hate – editorial Jerusalem Post. Before and after:
What was the northern Gaza Strip like before the Israeli genocide and eradication, and how does it look now as seen from inside the settlement of Sderot? pic.twitter.com/LfUO1aRbHS
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) December 31, 2024
European Disunion
Inoxtag: the incredible success story of France’s most phenomenal influencer EuroNews
Dear Old Blighty
Elon Musk criticises UK prime minister and calls for new elections Ukrainska Pravda
New Not-So-Cold War
Poll reveals fewer Ukrainians willing to bear burden of war for as long as necessary Ukrainska Pravda
The Budapest Memo holds keys to ending the Ukraine war Responsible Statecraft
Are Russian Sanctions Working? Debate Gains New Urgency With Trump NYT
European Commission reveals how Russian gas supplied through Ukraine was replaced Ukrainska Pravda
Putin 25 years in office – has he been a boon or a bane for Russia? Ben Aris, Radio Moskva
Global Elections
Elections to Watch in 2025 Foreign Policy
Biden Admiistration
Scoop: Biden discussed plans to strike Iran nuclear sites if Tehran speeds toward bomb Axios
Mysterious mark appears on Biden’s hand during White House appearance Daily Mail
Trump Transition
The Situation: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Trump Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare. Commentary:
Don't believe a thing that's said about these terrorist events
One single thing
Don't try to "solve" them either or get addicted to the developing "revelations" and "contradictions"
It is a haunted house and every squeak and jump scare and quiet moment before the next one…
— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) January 3, 2025
New US Congress to convene Friday Anadolu Agency. See here.
What will happen if the U.S. commits to bitcoin Axios
NOLA dude:
New Orleans attacker acted alone; feds look for ties to Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas LA Times
Do not fall for simplistic portrayals of the New Orleans attacker Al Jazeera
The narrative used to be better (1):
Is it me or has the quality of CIA productions got really bad? The 2000s felt like the golden age of black flags: major events, tight scripts, suspense, worthy villains. Today it's like watching a 3rd rate Netflix movie because you can't find the remote and are too lazy to look
— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) January 2, 2025
The narrative used to be better (2):
Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think? https://t.co/WMZ8acmbLm
— leahmcelrath.bsky.social (@leahmcelrath) January 3, 2025
The narrative used to be better, except when it wasn’t (3). Quoted recently:
From Terry Pratchett’s Jingo (the Klatchians are desert-dwelling adversaries of Ankh-Morpork), the two policement Nobby Nobbs and Sergeant Colon:
Hang on, there’s a box right at the back…’ He wriggled out, towing a small box with him. It was locked, but the cheap metal gave way when he accidentally levered at the lid. Silver coins gleamed. Lots and lots of them. ‘Whoops…’ he muttered. ‘We’re in trouble now…’
‘That’s Klatchian money, that is!’ said Colon. ‘Sometimes people slip you one instead of a half–dollar in your change. Look, there’s all curly writing on them!’
‘We’re in big trouble,’ said Nobby. ‘No, no, no, this is a Clue what we have found by patient detectoring,’ said Sergeant Colon. ‘And it’s going to be a feather in our caps and no mistake when Mr Vimes hears about it!’….
[Nobby] looked up at the bare walls and down at the rough floorboards. ‘There’s a bit of sand on the floor,’ he said. ‘Another Clue, then,’ said Colon happily. ‘A Klatchian has been here. Bugger all else but sand in Klatch. Still got some in his sandals.’ Nobby opened the window. It gave on to a gently sloping roof. Someone could get through it easily and be away over the tiles and into the maze of chimneys. ‘He could’ve gone in and out this way, sarge,’ he volunteered. ‘Good point, Nobby. Write that down. Evidence of conniving and sneaking around.’ Nobby peered down. ‘Here, there’s glass outside, Fred…’ Sergeant Colon joined him at the stricken window. One of the panes had been smashed. Outside, glass glittered on the tiles. ‘That could be a clue, eh?’ said Nobby, hopefully. ‘It certainly is,’ said Sergeant Colon. ‘See the glass fell outside the window? Everyone knows you look at which way the glass fails. I reckon he was just testing his bow and it went off while it was loaded.’
‘That’s clever, sarge,’ said Nobby. ‘That’s detectoring,’ said Colon. ‘It’s no good just looking at things, Nobby. You got to think straight, too.’
FBI releases timeline of deadly New Orleans truck-ramming attack Al Jazeera
* * * Vegas dude:
Who is Matthew Livelsberger? What we know about the Tesla Cybertruck explosion suspect FOX. Commentary:
JUST IN: Family of accused Trump hotel truck bomber Matthew Livelsberger says he was a “big Trump supporter,” questions the incident.
Odd.
The uncle of Livelsberger told the Independent that he is confused by the explosion because his nephew could rig a bomb to blow up half the… pic.twitter.com/uJ4uDmfWzR
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 2, 2025
* * * Turo-rented cars were involved in 2 deadly incidents this New Year’s. Here’s what we know AP
The Supremes
In year-end report, chief justice defends judiciary’s independence SCOTUSblog
Biden’s net neutrality rules struck down by appeals court Axios
Emoji has legal standing in Canadian courts Language Log
Spook Country
US Army soldier allegedly linked to hacked Trump, Harris phone records charged by feds NY Post
Digital Watch
Honey Extension Scam Michael Tsai
Healthcare
Surgeon catches CANCER from patient in first-of-its-kind case Daily Mail
Sports Desk
A rose’s journey from a Colombian farm to a parade float in Pasadena LA Times
The Current Cinema
There Was No Sorcerer Literary Review
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trump Has Promised to Build More Ships. He May Deport the Workers Who Help Make Them. ProPublica
Small talk-free walks and silent meals: Where to find peace and quiet on your next trip EuroNews
100-Foot Wave Surfed at Maverick’s? Potentially. Surfer
Antidote du jour (Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Surgeon catches CANCER from patient in first-of-its-kind case”
To be more specific, it is the first recorded and verified instance of this happening as that DNA sampling was able to give a solid confirmation. It must have happened in the past too but maybe those infected surgeon weren’t looking at the probably cause too closely back then. One thing that I did note was where it said the following-
‘However, given the tumor’s development, and growth, it suggests the surgeon’s body had an ‘ineffective antitumor immune response.’ ‘
Could it be perhaps that this surgeon was previously infected with an airborne virus that may have left him with a weakened immune system? There is one candidate that I can think of but I can’t quite recall it’s name but the name itself reminds me of crows.
“reminds me of crows”?
From the DM article: “While the case was originally reported in 1996, …”
The case was actually from 1996.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199611143352004
Re Putin 25 years in office – has he been a boon or a bane for Russia? Ben Aris, Radio Moskva
As this article leans heavily on chief BBC anti-Putin propagandist aka Moscow correspondent, Rosenberg, its conclusions can be taken with a barrel rather than a pinch of salt. In all his reporting Rosenberg paints a very sneeringly cliched picture of life in Russia and Putin’s achievements, and repeats Ukrainian propaganda without any discerning reflection. Best ignored.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1C9Vq
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Russia, Germany and France, 1990-2023
(Percent change)
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1C9Vs
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Russia, Germany and France, 1990-2023
(Indexed to 1990)
I expect the Russian GDP has less financialization in it, so relative real improvement is understated by the metric.
The Russians have another advantage. After the war began a lot of westerners had to get out of Russia – which included a lot of managers, consultants, etc. That really turned out to be a blessing in disguise for them.
Russian GDP is 4th largest among nations, per capita GDP is $47,299:
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/October/weo-report?c=223,924,132,134,532,534,536,158,546,922,112,111,&s=PPPGDP,PPPSH,&sy=2000&ey=2024&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2024
GDP, 2024
China ( 37,732)
United States ( 29,168)
India ( 16,020)
Russia ( 6,909)
Japan ( 6,572)
Germany ( 6,017)
Brazil ( 4,702)
Indonesia ( 4,658)
France ( 4,359)
United Kingdom ( 4,282)
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/October/weo-report?c=922,&s=NGDP_RPCH,PPPGDP,PPPPC,NID_NGDP,NGSD_NGDP,PCPIPCH,GGXWDG_NGDP,BCA_NGDPD,&sy=2017&ey=2024&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
October 15, 2024
Russia, 2017-2024
Real GDP, percent change
Investment, percent of GDP
Savings, percent of GDP
Inflation rate, percent change
General government gross debt, percent of GDP
Current account balance, percent of GDP
Bummer that!
I’m fully convinced the West’s (especially America’s) secret weapon is the MBA bomb. Add in the air burst CEO share buybacks and it becomes a devastating one-two punch. Deploy these weapons systems and they will wreck your industrial base and infrastructure!
Mr. Putin became acting president at the end of 1999 and was elected to a full term in the spring of 2000. The American presidents in that span have been Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. All things considered which nation, Russia or the US, has enjoyed better leadership? All things considered, which nation, Russia or the US, has elevated its standing among in the world? Just asking.
Ouch!
Always love your stats, CA. Party On!
My favorite statistic for evaluating evil dictators is life-expectancy – https://www.statista.com/statistics/1090507/life-expectancy-at-birth-in-russia-by-area/
The western-aligned Yeltsin was disastrous. Putin seems to have pulled Russia back from the brink of collapse. Could others have done better?
“Bird flu is so bad that Japan is running out of land to bury chickens”
Wait! I’ve got an idea! I know exactly where they can bury those chickens. There is one part of one province in Japan that would be ideal. Nobody wants to go live there except for really old people who are going to die anyway and last I saw, they had these huge bags of soils that those chickens could be buried under. The best part is that this place is easy to find. Just look for the place that glows in the dark all by itself and you’re in business. But not too close to the shoreline. Sounds like a plan to me.
Hmmm…. Glows in the Night Soil Island?
See: Night Soil Island: (Alas, google search function is now sooooooo bad, I can no longer find articles I have read years ago.) [Night Soil Island was an island, probably still is, built in Tokyo Bay out of nightsoil after the ‘substances’ were no longer being used in Japanese agriculture. As I read it, the main Tokyo drugs addiction hospital was sited there. Hmmm…]
Anybody else wondering if Livelsberger was already dead when that Tesla pulled up to Trump’s Vegas hotel?
Maybe if it could be remotely steered. I do note that all those explosives that he had in the back of that tuck was an amateur collection of stuff that would burn or go bang. Not the sort of thing that you would expect of an ex-Special Forces soldier. Not even close to what happened back in ’95 with the Oklahoma city building bombing when you think about it. It sounded like not so much a terrorist attack as somebody making a low-key statement.
If the explosives were set to a timer, and he shot himself first, mightt the flash from the muzzle of his gun be visible before the explosion? I’m not seeing evidence of that in the video.
The truck is self driving, he could kill himself before he got there.
Or have been killed…
These separate incidents are making me think of a distant movie featuring Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer working a planned bombing of a New Orleans ferry, “Deja Vu”… spoiler from that movie, they have to do a little unique bit of time travelling…
Good movie that. I have another one to suggest. There was a spin-off from the “X Files” called “The Lone Gunmen” where the heroes were trying to stop an airliner they were aboard from being remotely flown into the Twin Towers in New York on behalf of a government agency. Then a few months later….
He probably wanted to make sure his ID survived the blast and subsequent lithium fire.
US veterans commit suicide every day!
Not saying in this case.
We need to remember this!
“JUST IN: Family of accused Trump hotel truck bomber Matthew Livelsberger says he was a “big Trump supporter,” questions the incident.
Odd.
The uncle of Livelsberger told the Independent that he is confused by the explosion because his nephew could rig a bomb to blow up half the…”
pic.twitter.com/uJ4uDmfWzR
What if he interrupted a bigger plan of some kind and making sure his ID was found is a message to whoever else may get ideas?
Walter Kirn, citing a former special forces friend/acquaintance that he talked to, espressed a similar view on the podcast he does with Taibbi.
The imagery of Elon Musk’s ‘iconic’ Tesla Cybertruck crewcab(?) exploding in front of Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel is …… electric! Of course, the truck was demolished and the hotel survived. Mixed metaphors?
I walk about in my Seattle neighborhood, narrow, hilly streets lined with parked cars (lots of regular Teslas), in front of what were early 20th century, tiny working class homes (pre-car, so no driveways or garages) now selling for upwards of one million dollars, and one of these armored cyber trucks roars (silently) around the corner and I think I have been teleported into a Mad Max movie.
Seeing the video of the reporter going through the suspected bad guy’s rental felt really odd to me. Like putting a bow on the whole event to close this affair out.
And the uncle saying his nephew had a much better skillset than what actually happened.
And the billions spent hardening up sites and training LEOs to protect us from just this sort thing, yet here we are.
Whatever man.
An accounting of the books on the shelf would be interesting. Among the short row of leather spined books, I can see Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum’s The Sealed Nectar, along with what looks like Darrusalam’s The Islamic Library . The smaller carpet appears to be a modern replica by the finish of the warp ends. It is not a prayer rug, which begs the question “is there a prayer rug to go along with that Quran?”.
When there is a university shooter do they even distribute pictures? It seems very scripted as to what the public is privy.
That apartment would be a crime scene. The fact that the reporter and camera crew were allowed to film inside there so quickly after the incident is curious in and of itself.
Someone is constructing a Narrative.
Agreed. Why did the cops not confiscate the small library of books as evidence?
Ambrit, we’ve just been told that these fine people covered up for a brain dead President for four years, clearly it’s pretty easy to spin these yarns and get true believers.
“… true believers.”
We all know what becomes of “Unbelievers” in any society run by an -ocracy.
Caitlin Johnstone stated an interesting observation –
“One of the weirdest things about this case is the fact that a virulent Israel apologist named Jenny Taer was apparently allowed by the FBI to walk through Jabbar’s home and shoot footage for a New York Post report despite it being a crime scene in an active investigation.”
the whole thing stinks to high heaven – here’s Caitlin’s full post –
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01/04/2025-is-off-to-a-wild-start/
it feels like we are being prepped for something – and it feels uncomfortable –
Agreed. Get ready for a new “crime” to be promulgated: Being an enemy of the State.
“US won’t allow an ‘atmosphere of fear’ to prevail,” says Alejandro Mayorkas.
Translation: US wants an “atmosphere of fear” in order to justify the latest atrocity it’s planning. In the name of protecting us, as usual.
One really needs the old Pravda reader’s guide to interpreting news stories to decipher what news stories really mean in the West nowadays.
We need an Emmanuel Goldstein, to keep the Big Brother Cult goibg, don’t we? More than Eastasia, Eurasia, or whatever that foreign thing is.
Not to suggest that it’s a good or even a rational trend that was previously set in place starting oh about January 2017…the Orange Man is Very Bad ! And for not the first or the last time it bears repeating…”But Our Democracy!”
Russiagate….the really unprecedented Mar A Lago circumstances to gather up previously super duper classified documents that no other Pres or VP has ever mishandled …The attempted efforts to memory hole the Hunter Biden laptop and his alleged schemes and associations for attracting vast sums of money…Just citing a few obvious and known examples…
I do think our Goldstein is already walking amongst us.
the ghost of Goldstein has been around since the monarchists – same scarecrow, different rags hanging from the boogeyman –
re: Garry Webb and CIA drug trafficking
Sorry if this is not on the topic list at all – but it’s a commemorative piece by FAIR as 20 years have passed since:
20 Years After His Death, Gary Webb’s Truth Is Still Dangerous
https://fair.org/home/20-years-after-his-death-gary-webbs-truth-is-still-dangerous/
For those who don’t know or forgot, the author of the piece quotes a couple of the core links on the subject, such as Norman Solomon’s defense of Webb 1997:
Snow Job
The establishment’s papers do damage control for the CIA
Jan. 1st, 1997
https://fair.org/extra/snow-job/
or the NYT from 1993
The CIA Drug ConnectionIs as Old as the Agency
https://archive.is/a2RXC
Thanks for the news about FAIR and the links.
Thanks for that reminder of that affair. Webb clearly received the Hunter Biden Laptop story treatment back in 1996. It ties in nicely with Yves post on “Why Doesn’t the News Media Talk About the Real Issues of Life”.
Before Webb, we had the perfunctory “nothing to see here, move along” coverage of the investigations by and subsequent death of Danny Casolaro. Investigative journalism used to be a highly admired profession, but the last few decades indicate it should carry a health warning like your pack of cigarettes.
Re: “Are Russian Sanctions working?”
1. Betteridge’s law
2. Somebody at the NY Times isn’t reading the Economist, who report healthy GDP increases in Russia
3. Are they serious? Three years of failure, and they’re still trying to run this nonsense up the flag-pole?
#3, Yes, they are. Being the good stenographers they are, wanting to continue being in the cool kids club, and satisfy the subscribers, they keep regurgitating this stuff.
The Running Dogs returneth to their vomit?
Yellow Dog Journalism at it’s bestest!
“Yellow dog contracts, on the other hand, are employment agreements that prohibit employees from joining or supporting labor unions. The term “yellow dog” refers to a worker who is willing to agree to such a contract, effectively betraying their fellow workers and surrendering their right to collective bargaining. These contracts have historically been used to weaken labor movements and ensure complete control and domination over the workforce.”
They ask because it is their only hope left. Crossing the fingers they are because their neoliberal faith might crumble.
I have the suspicion also that the way Syria played out has put a bit of wind back in their sails. It took 14 years for the sanctions to work, but they eventually wore down the Assad regime.
Of course, an objective analyst would point out that unlike Syria, the US didn’t seize one third of Russia and take their oil. And, Russia has plenty of free trade with China, India, Brazil, and the rest of the world. But that won’t stop them from getting their hopes up.
I feel the PMC is trying to force Trump into a corner by pushing this narrative again. Yahoo has a “news” piece about how Russia lost almost 500,000 troops in Ukraine during 2024. Of course, the ISW is the source…
ISW; Vickie Nuland cookies fresh every
Friday
>Why Dostoyevsky is trending on TikTok RT
Thanks for this link. I thought I had read most of Dostoyevsky’s major and minor works but don’t recall White Nights. As soon as I finish my Frank Herbert bing (currently reading through his lessor know works like White Plague, The Dosadi Experiment, The Santaroga Barrier, Soul Catcher, etc…that my daughter gave me for Christmas) I intend to pick up/download a copy of it.
Ask and ye shall receive-
https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/whitenightsother00dostiala/whitenightsother00dostiala.pdf
A 25 MB pdf that includes several other of his stories.
archive.org also has the De Sica movie, that transplants the novel from St. Petersburg in the summer to Livorno in the winter.
Thanks Rev!
Much appreciated. I listened to the audiobook on Ytube, little over 2 hours, the audio was continually interrupted by commercials, so I need to read it for myself…
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36034/36034-h/36034-h.htm
1918
White Nights and Other Stories
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translation by Constance Garnett
WHITE NIGHTS: a sentimental story from the diary of a dreamer
FIRST NIGHT
It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. The sky was so starry, so bright that, looking at it, one could not help asking oneself whether ill-humoured and capricious people could live under such a sky. That is a youthful question too, dear reader, very youthful, but may the Lord put it more frequently into your heart!… Speaking of capricious and ill-humoured people, I cannot help recalling my moral condition all that day. From early morning I had been oppressed by a strange despondency. It suddenly seemed to me that I was lonely, that every one was forsaking me and going away from me. Of course, any one is entitled to ask who “every one” was. For though I had been living almost eight years in Petersburg I had hardly an acquaintance. But what did I want with acquaintances? I was acquainted with all Petersburg as it was; that was why I felt as though they were all deserting me when all Petersburg packed up and went to its summer villa. I felt afraid of being left alone, and for three whole days I wandered about the town in profound dejection, not knowing what to do with myself. Whether I walked in the Nevsky, went to the Gardens or sauntered on the embankment, there was not one face of those I had been accustomed to meet at the same time and place all the year. They, of course, do not know me, but I know them. I know them intimately, I have almost made a study of their faces, and am delighted when they are gay, and downcast when they are under a cloud. I have almost struck up a friendship with one old man whom I meet every blessed day, at the same hour in Fontanka. Such a grave, pensive countenance; he is always whispering to himself and brandishing his left arm, while in his right hand he holds a long gnarled stick with a gold knob. He even notices me and takes a warm interest in me. If I happen not to be at a certain time in the same spot in Fontanka, I am certain he feels disappointed. That is how it is that we almost bow to each other, especially when we are both in good humour. The other day, when we had not seen each other for two days and met on the third, we were actually touching our hats, but, realizing in time, dropped our hands and passed each other with a look of interest…
> The Dosadi Experiment, The Santaroga Barrier
Dosadi Experiment is brilliant, a must-read.
Santaroga is an extremely creepy take on the 60s, but suffers from lack of character development. Still a good read.
“The White Plague” reads like a preconfiguration of the Jackpot.
Gonna be some drama today, grab your popcorn, and a favorite beverage:
Not if you pull my fingernails out! Massie a firm NO on Johnson
Conspicuously absent from that list … M T-G. Oh, Margie … what happened? Did they get to you, too? What did the Orangeman promise for you to bow the knee to Milquetoast Mike?
And don’t forget Nancy Pelosi arriving on the House floor … will she have a small army of medical aids to help her vote?
Heh, Massie is my second cousin. I agree with him on next to nothing politically but I respect him for his independence. That goes for Spartz as well, who is not afraid to criticize Republican elites for their corruption and hypocrisy. She’s not my second cousin, btw. She’s from Ukraine, in case people don’t know.
That’s pretty cool! I’m fascinated with the human element of this, what makes Massie have a spine while others (M T-G) sellout?
Trump hitching himself to Johnson seems like it may be his first big mistake. And yes I knew Spartz had Ukrainian roots but thanks for that reminder. If I remember, her policy stance on Ukraine is surprisingly not neo-con friendly.
Well, the Massie clan has roots in that area of Appalachia going back to the Revolutionary War era. ‘Stubborn’ independence and contempt for elites runs pretty deep there. And yes, I’m aware that Rep. Massie is highly educated and has money. He still has that DNA in his blood. Just my take on the matter. M T-G, I don’t know that much about her.
I can visualize Pelosi appearing on the House floor ensconsed in a medi-bubble like the Guild Navigator in the throne room scene from David Lynch’s version of “Dune.”
LOL thanks for that imagery! Mitch McConnell could use one of those, too!
“We have just warped reality from Wall Street.”
Not to go all ad hominem but Speaker Johnson has an uncanny resemblance to Jerry Mathers, (who played the Beaver on the old TV series for those too young to remember).
It’s not just that they part their hair on the same side. Put glasses on the Beaver and voilà, or viola as Tommy Smothers would say.
I noticed that a while back. I thought maybe I was crazy seeing his resemblance to The Beav. Glad to know you’re crazy too!
No freckles.
“Mysterious mark appears on Biden’s hand during White House appearance”
Biden heard to be shouting ‘Out, damned spot; out, I say’ as he tries to wash his hands.
I believe the more appropriate Macbeth quote for this article is the following –
“Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing”
I just simply cannot believe the media sometimes. Yes, that mark could mean a recent venous puncture over that hand. That would be a possible blood draw ( phlebotomy ) or possibly the site of administration of an IV drug.
The above conclusion would be especially the case in a much younger person.
However, older people have very frail veins. The subcutaneous tissue in their extremities is often devoid of much subcutaneous fat – exposing their superficial veins to be damaged from even the slightest tap. Furthermore, Biden has famously had multiple cerebrovascular events and it would not be surprising at all if he was taking anticoagulant drugs like Xarelto or Eliquis. The arms of 80somethings on these drugs or even daily baby aspirin often appear as if they are covered in barnacles. The superior aspect of the hand, just like this photo, is often very involved because it is likely to be smacked constantly. Indeed, that would be my first guess as to the etiology of this bruising.
There are all kinds of things about Biden’s last days to focus on. This line of questioning is just ridiculous.
What is wrong with our media?
Thanks … wouldn’t it be nice if the media focused instead on his lies that a Gaza ceasefire has been “imminent” since May? And the subsequent body count?
Where is Antony Blinken?
I know it’s a digital photo, and may have been colour-corrected, but to my eyes that mark seems to be have a grey-brown tint, rather than the purple-brown I would expect for a bruise. And is that the hint of a raised margin along the lower edge?
I might be tempted to suggest something like a melanoma, but I won’t, Doc. You’ve wisely cautioned us in the past against offering a drive-by diagnosis.
Time will tell (or maybe not).
Looks like the kind of bruise I have from time to time and I am an old guy also. All I need do is bang my hand and,voila, a purple bruise.
It’s a Big Club, and I’m in it!
If Biden fell and hurt himself [eg lower lip] I suppose that his caretakers might have quickly started an iv, just in case venous access became necessary, hence the bruise on the back of his hand …
Well, it’s a lot like drone coverage obscuring genocide and Ukraine collapsing.
Nah. ‘Good Catholic’ Biden has received the stigmata for the incredible sacrifice and suffering he has endured in his life. Through it all, he has attended Mass and maintained his faith. It’s truly inspiring.
Watch for him to become St. Joey of the Lunch Bucket, patron of Scranton, soon after his passing.
Alas, the Alchemists hereabout assert that that is the Mark of the Beast manifesting.
St. Joey, the Patron Saint of Pediatric Hairdressers?
>Poll reveals fewer Ukrainians willing to bear burden of war for as long as necessary Ukrainska Pravda
The number of Ukrainians willing to endure the burden of war for as long as necessary is declining. As of December 2024, 57% expressed this readiness
These data show that the willingness to endure war is only partially related to material living conditions and that other factors have a greater impact on the safety margin,” KIIS concluded.
You have to love Academe, here we have the a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in December 2024 that lends a patina of “science” to proffer a conclusion that a majority of Ukrainians are willing to “endure the burden of war for as long as necessary.” I’m assuming that the “burden” doesn’t include sacrificing one’s children to Moloch. Burden? Like freezing to death? Oh, I see they must mean, burden like as in paying an extra couple of dollars on fuel cost or not being able to party at the local pub as frequently? How silly of me.
Those videos I see of gangs prowling the streets to shanghai more bodies to throw into the meat grinder must be fake. One must follow the science, although I’m not sure that sociology, at least as reflected in polling surveys, qualifies.
The Russian spook services are saying that the Ukraine is getting ready to lower the conscription age down to 18 as Biden has been continuously demanding. Also-
‘Countries in Eastern Europe bordering Ukraine are quietly preparing to receive new waves of Ukrainian refugees, who this time will be fleeing not from an imaginary threat posed by Russia, but from the real danger of getting a one-way ticket to the front lines’
https://www.rt.com/russia/610382-ukraine-lower-draft-age/
Why is this an issue? Israel has conscription at 18 without new waves of refugees. Selective Service in the US also starts at 18.
There was a significant drop in the fertility rate of most former USSR Republics following its collapse in 1991. The rate in Ukraine reached its Nadir in the early naughts, and that crop of babies is now in their late teens and early 20s. See the illustration in this article on the demographics of Ukraine.
US and Israeli 18 year olds are not sent into their certain death, and they get to see their 19th birthday. Most mobilized Ukrainian 18 year olds won’t (it would cost them an arm and a leg to do so).
I don’t think there has ever been a war in history in which people have fought so hard against their own interests.
If you are a Ukrainian, what are you fighting for?
Your land? The land has not been yours for a long time, Zelensky and the oligarchs sold it to Blackrock
Language? Most of them speak Russian and are ethnic Russians, but everything Russian is now banned.
Religion? They banned the Orthodox church and are in the process of stealth Catholicisation.
Freedom? It’s an open-air concentration camp with no laws or human rights to speak of, where human meat is hunted on the streets and fried on the front lines, and if you dare open your mouth to protest, Nazi thugs will be knocking on your door very soon and you will be disappeared.
The economy? The plan is for Ukraine to be a resource extraction colony of the West, with what little local industry remains other than the dirty mining works the West does not want on its own territory being killed.
Meanwhile if they were to surrender and just let the whole place be absorbed into the Russian Federation, none of the above would be an issue — they would be able to speak whatever language they want, including Ukrainian if they feel like, to follow whatever religion they want, and would have personal freedoms.
Plus they would have cheap gas and oil, markets for their goods, investment into infrastructure, education and industry, etc.
If you are on the front lines, you are actively fighting against a better life and for perpetuating the current hell.
And yet those people do fight, and very hard too.
This is probably the most remarkable success of brainwashing and propaganda in human history…
Please be careful about your assertions. Only 28% of agricultural land is investor owned and that means both oligarch and foreigners. Given the need for local operators, the oligarchs are generally believed to be the bigger holders (often in combination with foreign interests). That is still not great but it means the picture on that issue is much less dire than you depict. But the general points well taken.
As for brainwashing, sorry, the Japanese were ahead in WWII. Japanese women jumped off cliffs, sometimes with children in arms, to escape the expected rape and torture by the white devils:
https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/the-japanese-civilian-tragedy-of-the-pacific-war
Some instances were even captured on film: https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675050854_American-Marines_World-War-II_Japanese-women-jump_cave-entrances
There’s a Peace Museum in Osaka that I very much recommend visiting if anyone goes there. Takes about 2 hours. It goes into great detail about how the Japanese lived during the war, and what was most interesting to me was the militarization of civilian life, something I’d never heard about. Another thing – it shows the progression of the war from an entirely Japanese point of view, with some misgivings about the culture of the time but is unforgiving of the Americans, Russians and Chinese(!). One of those things that I decided offhand to do just because we were in the neighborhood and it turned out to be life-changing, at least in the way I understood Japan and the war.
Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her also covers the brutalization of the kamikaze pilots by the Japanese military, including the pilot who is believed to have delivered the fatal blow to the USS Bunker Hill.
That’s interesting.
Still, the Japanese had a very different culture to the Europeans/Americans, and they didn’t speak the same language, so it was easy for them to fear the white devils.
The situation in Ukraine is different. Ukrainian is a similar language, many Ukrainians speak Russian, many Russians/Ukrainians have Ukrainian/Russian relatives, and both Ukraine and Russia were important parts of the USSR, technologically and agriculturally. For instance the red Soviet stars that burn bright on Russian buildings at night were made in Ukraine. Other than some historical hatred of the far West towards Russia, which was part of of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it seems to me to be a very artificial civil war.
Not “many”, *most.
The inverse also applies — e.g. Medvedev, who plays the arch-hawk role on the Russian side, has roots from Ukraine on his mother’s side, and so does half of Russia.
A (late) relative who was on the first wave at Iwo Jima confessed, just about on his deathbed, to torturing Japanese prisoners during that battle. This was something that tortured him long after the deed. In fact, he was the most anti-war person I know…because he actually was in one.
Per Yves comment, I tend to think that the “Blackrock ate everything” narrative is a bit overplayed by the crowd that rightfully suspects that the West wants to carve up Ukraine per colonialist doctrine.
There is probably some kernel of truth to it, in terms of Blackrock being a huge mutual fund conglomerate like Vanguard, that holds stock in every big company that is public. There has also been a lot of chest-thumping by clowns like Macron and Sholz on how they are investing in Ukraine, with Rheinmetal claiming it is going to build a weapons factory (somehow, these plans never seem to really materialize in any public form. It would likely have to be kept underground and secret.)
The only thing I really have to add in terms of concrete data is that there is a big metallurgical industry in Ukraine that relies on a coke plant near Pokrovsk, and to the best I can tell, that is still owned by an Oligarch (Metinvest), not a Western interest. Of course, it is about to fall into Russian hands, so not for long.
To be sure….. catholication!
The US Knights of Columbus last magazine ran an article about Bucha a controversial topic of alleged Russian atrocity…..
Seems some catholics are off to two 21st century crusades one for Netanyahu and one for the neocons.
Channeling the Teutonic order and Templars!
While the pope is silent about wars of empire.
one might draw a parallel between being catholic and being american. both represent evil and bloodshed throughout the world, sharing a mask of civility and feigning outrage at any criticism of collective raison d’étre, while individually some doing noble work, at times bordering on saintly.
>Channeling the Teutonic order and Templars!< yes, stunning yet perfect analogy!
Being Christian is a fact not a religion. Catholic???
never really thought of that, you’re right.
the spanish melded catholicism with aspects of native religion as part of their forced conversions. in parts of the southwest it’s a catholicism that american catholics might not recognize, still anathema to many.
One thing worth noting is that Ukrainian Catholics (who are not Polish, Slovak, or Hungarian) mostly belong to UGCC, the Ukrainian “Greek” Catholic Church (they still recognize the Papal leadership, thus part of the Catholic Church) who would be mistaken for Orthodox by most Roman Catholics. But, precisely because of that, the hatred between them and the Eastern Orthodox is considerable….
>US won’t allow ‘atmosphere of fear’ to prevail after deadly New Orleans terror attack, says Alejandro Mayorkas FOX
Are you kidding FOX? That’s all they have left is creating an “atmosphere of fear.” Yesterday evening on the treadmill at the gym with headphones on, looking up occasionally at the 30+ TV screens, I see FOX and CNN side by side covering this story. The banner on the bottom of one screen trying to out do the other one, with “devastating terrorist attack” or maybe it read “deadly.” I didn’t give it another thought and went back to listening to audiobook. I think something has broken with respect to organizations like FOX & CNN and alt-Media, which is directly related to Yves’s link on “Why Doesn’t the News Media Talk About the Real Issues in Life?”
Lol! Zaganostra, FOX indeed. This is what they live for!
re: Stand Out: How to Prevent Obeying in Advance
Thank for the link. From the Milgram experiment results:
“‘Please continue with the experiment.’ As you can imagine, it was extremely distressing for the participants, yet 63% continued to shock the confederate to the maximum level (video here). ”
That means one third of the test subjects did not continue to shock the confederate to the maximum level. One third refused before the shock reached the danger point.
I find hope in that percentage of people refusing to go along with what they saw as inhuman and wrong. The real resistance. (No electricity pun intended. / ;)
A well-grounded comment indeed!
This link is the “must read” of the day. Above all people must “stand out” bringing attention to and opposing the genocide in Gaza.
I find 1/3 abysmally low and I’m surprised no one escalated the situation to save the victim. I’d be curious how this experiment would reproduce in other cultures.
From Milgram’s writings about his experiment:
Milgram (1974) explained the behavior of his participants by suggesting that people have two states of behavior when they are in a social situation:
Milgram’s Agency Theory
The autonomous state – people direct their own actions, and they take responsibility for the results of those actions.
The agentic state – people allow others to direct their actions and then pass off the responsibility for the consequences to the person giving the orders. In other words, they act as agents for another person’s will.
Milgram suggested that two things must be in place for a person to enter the agentic state:
The person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people’s behavior. That is, they are seen as legitimate.
The person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority will accept responsibility for what happens.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
A more recent analysis of unpublished Milgrim experiment data gives something like 56% defiance rate – mostly those who believed the subject was really suffering. Many of the people that went to the max pain level suspected that the experiment was a hoax.
https://www.psypost.org/unpublished-data-from-stanley-milgrams-experiments-casts-doubts-on-his-claims-about-obedience/
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1874989133602734353
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
Extremely telling that many supporters of president Yoon – who attempted what was maybe the most egregious coup attempt in history – are very pro-US, waving American flags and US slogans in English like “stop the steal”…
It’s becoming more and more obvious that in many parts of the world, what the US is associated with are the forces undermining democracy.
https://theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jan/02/south-korea-police-on-way-to-arrest-president-yoon-suk-yeol-latest-updates
8:20 PM · Jan 2, 2025
And who, exactly, is the Commander of the South Korean armed forces?
Excuse me. Technically the Combined Forces Command, an organization that dates from the end of the Korean “police action”.
I wonder whether similar arrangements exist in Germany and Japan
CFC dates back to the late Pres Carter’s plan to drawdown USFK in the 70s. But prior to this US/ROK had treaty arrangement by which US would maintain troops in country under UNC. In the 1960 coup Korean authority moved ROK troops without CINCUNC approval. This resulted in consultations and an agreement that CINCUNC would relinquish operational control of certain ROK units to the National Reconstitution Supreme Committee in May 1961.
Events in 1968 including the Pueblo incident created an altered perception of command relationships and agitation by Korea resulted in a greater degree of independence for ROK forces. This created the framework that the Carter-ordered drawdown operated within resulting in the formation of CFC.
The difference between North and South Korea is US ran out of Park kin, while Kim family grew.
US imposed fake democracy in late 1980’s.
US forces defending a sham….
The Parks were Korean sovereigntists who were a thirn on the side of US: they cooperated with US demands, but extracted every concession they could, which, in turn, went into developing the SK economy. Plus, there is putatively another thing that the old General Park had in common with Kim Il Sung: they were both communists, reputedly. It is a fact that Park was drummed out of the army and imprisoned because of his link to a communist-inspired army mutiny in the South just before the Korean War broke out. (I think he was even sentenced to death.) He was let out and reinstated during the War because of his competence and pleading by many people in the army. Even so, he remained marginalized until he took power in the coup (whose mainstay was mostly below colonel–the key leaders were actually mostly majors and captains–they recruited Park, not the other way around.)
When I was young, some of my old relatives were openly talking about how (they thought) Park was a Comintern agent during WW2, but that was fine because he came to the right side. Probably not true, but I mention it because that indicates something about how people in SK thought about things back then–not so simple Cold War stuff.
Taibbi’s latest. An extra ATW this morning.
America This Week: Terror Attacks Live Discussion at 10 ET, Friday, January 3
We taped a show, but too much news came in overnight, so we’ll “do it live” today, as Bill O’Reilly would say. Cataloguing a slew of unusual new facts in the terror cases
https://www.racket.news/p/america-this-week-terror-attacks
Walter Kirn and I taped an America This Week segment yesterday, really we did. We went through the press conferences and discussed the record of the FBI in cases like this, among other things. We also taped a lively segment about a Gustave Flaubert story, the bizarre and brilliant “The Legend of St. Julian Hospitaller,” which we’ll be releasing separately this morning.
A slew of new details then came in overnight, rendering most of what we discussed moot. Authorities issued contradictory statements about both the Las Vegas and New Orleans terrorist attacks, and new interviews turned both stories into a jumble. We’ll go through everything live this morning at 10 a.m. ET.
Gustave Flaubert’s “The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller”
https://www.online-literature.com/gustave-flaubert/2122/
Clicking through to read comments from the link above, and the situation in the Vegas explosion becomes ever more odd and curiously makes myself just a bit more highly suspicious….A key point, I don’t know guns well at all but I guess a .50 caliber single shot would or could do serious damage at close range ( per the comments section ) but I needed to follow up more on that story at any rate.
Time to quote Hunter S Thompson…whose works I don’t know too well…”when the going gets weird the weird turn pro…”. And it grows seemingly more weird every passing week…
Larry Johnson questions current official narrative about the two terror attacks.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/ex-cia-analyst-doesnt-buy-fbis-ny-day-terror-narrative-highlights-potential-ukrainian-intel-trace-1121339673.html
Possibly from a Dima interview at Dialogue Works.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tWyiZ0JDsVY&pp=ygUOZGlhbG9ndWUgd29ya3M%3D
REIT-wrecks of Wall Street
Melody
I saw a REIT-wreck with some Chinese junk bonds in its hands
Walkin’ through the streets of SoHo in the rain
It was lookin’ for a place to liquidate its books
Gonna get a big dish of risk-low mein
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo
You hear him howlin’ around your pension fund
You better not let him in
Little old teachers got mutilated late last night
REIT-wrecks of Wall St. again!
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo (huh)
[interlude]
It’s a pre-pandemic scheme that’s spawned a bunch of memes
Lately its been overheard on LinkedIn
You’d better stay away from him, he’ll rip your balance sheet out, Jim
Huh, I’d like to meet his broker
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo
Ah-hoo, REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
Ah-hoo (they’ll draw blood)
Well, I saw a bond trader talkin’ C.R.E.
Sellin’ the REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
I saw a bond trader jukin’ with his CRE
Sellin’ the REIT-wrecks of Wall St.
I saw a REIT-wreck drinkin’ a Pina Colada at Trader Vic’s
And its haircut was perfect (nah)
Ah-hoo!
REIT-wrecks of Wall St (they’ll draw blood!)
Very nice Chris. You didn’t even have to mention your source.
I hope he enjoyed every bite while he was alive, as per his advise on the Letterman show.
i had his thought aa well..
” ‘Stop sharing now’: IDF reservists’ posts are being twisted into Israeli hate – editorial”
‘An Israeli reserve soldier lights a candle in his menorah during his service in Gaza, attempting to spread a bit of light in the darkness of a region harboring some of the most brutal killers on the face of the earth.’
Umm, did they really think through that particular sentence when they wrote it?
“An Israeli reserve soldier lights a candle…”
I have no proper words to express how terrible this has been.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/health/alcohol-surgeon-general-warning.html
January 3, 2025
Surgeon General Calls for Cancer Warnings on Alcohol
Dr. Vivek Murthy’s report cites studies linking alcoholic beverages to at least seven malignancies, including breast cancer. But to add warning labels, Congress would have to act.
By Roni Caryn Rabin
Alcohol is a leading preventable cause of cancer, and alcoholic beverages should carry a warning label as packs of cigarettes do, the U.S. surgeon general said on Friday.
It is the latest salvo in a fierce debate about the risks and benefits of moderate drinking as the influential U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans are about to be updated. For decades, moderate drinking was said to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
That perception has been embedded in the dietary advice given to Americans. But growing research has linked drinking, sometimes even within the recommended limits, to various types of cancer.
Labels currently affixed to bottles and cans of alcoholic beverages warn about drinking while pregnant or before driving and operating other machinery, and about general “health risks.”
But alcohol directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year, the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, said.
He called for updating the labels to include a heightened risk of breast cancer, colon cancer and at least five other malignancies now linked by scientific studies to alcohol consumption…
I’m thinking its all the pesticides and herbicides used in grain production (or potato, or potatoes, ask Dan Quayle…)
BS in Rocket Surgery, minor in outdoor recreation, Montana State University, 1982
The only way to cope with living in the US is to drink, sometimes to excess.
It is after all a poison and destroys brain cells. We’ve known that for a long time.
(stirs whiskey highball with finger)
Its time to ramp Up the sin taxes.
Or increase military fitness.
My friends and acquaintances who were in USSR in 80s attribute at least part of the collapse to Gorbachev trying to force cutback on alcohol cobsumption.
Otoh, the study on “deaths of despair” in former USSR (Anne Case, aka Mrs Angus Deaton, was the lead author) did chalk up much of the excess mortality to alcoholism. (There is something about Case writing twin studies on deaths of despair in the two former Cold War superpowers that mirror each other closely.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/health/alcohol-dietary-guidelines.html
January 1, 2025
The Battle Over What to Tell Americans About Drinking
Officials in other countries are warning about the health hazards of alcohol in any amount. Americans are still told that moderate drinking is safe. What gives?
By Roni Caryn Rabin
A report that is intended to shape the next edition of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines has broken sharply with an emerging scientific consensus that alcohol has no health benefits.
The evidence review, by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in December, revived a once-dominant hypothesis that moderate drinking is linked to fewer heart attack and stroke deaths, and fewer deaths overall, compared with never drinking.
Many scientists now take issue with that view. And some fear that, based on the new analysis, the influential dietary guidelines may fail to address recent research into the harms of drinking…
I think with the growth of addiction recovery industries the ill effects are more known.
However, whatever punishment policy (the end result of all this) for people that is designed around the labelling, enough corporations have to be behind it to counter the liquor lobby.
Heh, actually tackling causes for deaths of despair in this country might go a long way to alleviating a cause of excessive drinking.
Naw.
yeah, beat me to it.
Exactly. See my other reply above.
“COVID 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting”
I think that a lot has been learned in the past five years. That government will sacrifice their people in order to protect an economy that does not exist anymore. That a government will gaslight their people and tell them that a pandemic is over when it is still raging full bore. That the machinery of public health would be abandoned and people told to take care of themselves instead. That the political expediency of a ‘magic bullet’ vaccine will be pushed in spite of the evidence of how dangerous that they can be. That the main stream media and the ‘educated classes’ would go full fascist in going along with those magic vaccines to force it on those hesitant. I am sure that there are many more lessons but I think that those are the main ones. Wait, I forgot one. That even though a pandemic is raging, a second pandemic brewing up will be virtually ignored if it falls into an election year.
Ah, “The Book of Five Years of Laughter and Forgetting”. A work of magical realism. I can scarcely wait to read it.
Really nice roundup.
The fact of the public health sector being completely discredited is one of the ones I still can’t believe. It seems to be a signifier of our times that things we thought were solid are actually rotten on the inside, and need only one good shove to come tumbling down.
Re: The Situation: What to Expect When You’re Expecting Trump Benjamin Wittes
Benjamin Wittes disgusts me to the point where I want to vomit. Perhaps worse, I am not a Trump supporter but clowns like this push me in that direction.
Parrticularly egregious is, “But it is not merely insulting to the men and women of the FBI to have Patel as their leader […]” and so on for what he has to say about Gabbard. The leadership of agencies is a function of elected officials; at least in theory this provides some accountability by the bureaucracy to the rest of us. The “men and women of the FBI” get their say in the voting booth – the same as the rest of us. If they don’t like the result, they have the right to quit their employment and find a new job or knuckle under depending on their inclination.
FBI needs to be uprooted!
Patel needs to hold remaining PMC holdovers accountable for politicizing the bureau!
“Followed orders” is no defense.
In fact, following illegal orders, if indeed that was the case, is the crime of highest order…
China’s central bank plans policy overhaul as pressure mounts on economy – FT
“For international investors, if the PBoC is successful, then Chinese monetary policy will start to resemble the system they are used to in the US, Europe or Japan.”
Again, I ask, what declining global influence from the USA?
“For international investors, if the PBoC is successful…”
Chinese monetary policy is designed to manage specific sectors of the economy. This will not change. What the Central Bank will be doing is monitoring bank portfolios for possible excessive risk taking. The digital economy is expanding and allowing for increasingly detailed portfolio examination and monitoring. Excess bank real estate investment holdings are to be avoided from here, as an example.
Amid martial law-induced crisis, Blinken to visit South Korea – Anadolu Agency
This doesn’t look promising for Korea.
So far, this is one of the most detailed reports I’ve read about events in S. Korea.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/03/how-yoon-planned-to-set-south-korea-on-the-path-to-military-dictatorship/
It’s heavy, and big if the sources are accurate. If so, Yoon has already dug the graves for political opposition. He and military leaders are ready to bury their actual bodies.
I’ll say that this is playing out like the politically correct fictionalized version (ie exactly opposite of the facts) of the past coups etc. I’ll remind you of a few facts:
1) Yoon, until he ran for president, was the right hand man of the alleged “Leftist” president Moon and in fact was the chief lawfarist who engineered the removal of President Park. His credentials as a “rightist” are as thin as LIz Cheney’s as a liberal and he’s not exactly trusted by many “rightists,” especially not the army.
2) SK never had the “army” launch a coup. Park and Chun/Roh, the previous coup leaders, were relatively marginal figures as far as generals were concerned, although they were highly regarded among the (relatively jr) officer corps for their competenence. The generals were always aligned with the political leadership (indeed, the first act in the Chun/Roh coup in 1979 was to place the top generals under arrest.)
3) #2, incidentally, knocks the usual trope about US involvement in SK coups to the ground. US command over SK forces is a formality, rather than actual. While it’s possible that US could bypass senior generals and somehow cultivate link to the “outsiders,” that’s not something US is especially good at, especially not the current crop of bozos who run the spook agencies. While the theoretical “actual” commander in chief, the SK president, trying to order the army around to do stuff is more in line, Yoon is clueless and out-of-touch enough that I think he’d have done the stuff all by himself.
But the SK left, of which Yoon had been a key member thereof unti lrecently, subscribes to a lot of myths about SK’s own political history. That Yoon has changed sides doesn’t mean that he has changed his fundamental understanding of history, or the myths thereof.
That is fascinating and, to my outsider eyes, plausible (and coincidentally reminds me of Musa al-Gharbi’s observation about white US liberals assuming the police will always help them in any disputes with blacks, while conservatives are less likely to expect this, given the priors of both groups about the police).
So in other words, past coups were carried out by lower ranks against both the political and military leadership, while here Yoon attempted a coup with the help of the political and military leadership, without any backing from below?
I think that’s a fair read, and even more so because he was ‘t even a “Rightist” until he lost the power struggle in the Left and jumped ship just before the presidential election. He has no real credibility with the Right beyond a handful of top.people he cut deals with, so nobody has any reason to follow him if he goes nuts.
PS. The analogy to Gharbi’s observation about the conservative vs. liberal whites’ take on the police is spot on, I think. There is precious little understanding of the previous coups in South Korean history–why they came about, who led them, why they were successful, and what made the governments they set up tick, at least for a reasonably long time, are poorly understood by today’s South Korean left. It’s a lot like, I think, the kind of stories that too many people in US believe about what makes Putin’s government tick in Russia, or even more so, CPC in China. Incidentally, of course, this is the version of history that’s exported to the West–which I imagine is also the case about Putin’s Russia, except, today’s SK is run by (a) coalition(s) nominally fronted by the “dissident liberals” and, nowadays, their intellectual descendants even further revmoved from the actual history (Including Yoon, the alleged rightist president).
Thanks for answering my question up the thread – we now know the whereabouts of Antony Blinken.
It’s the darnedest thing, I could have sworn I heard Joe say that he would work “tirelessly” for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal for the rest of his term, now down to around a fortnight.
And yet the S.S. Blinken is going to S. Korea – shouldn’t he be in the ME? I’m shocked, just shocked I tell ya!
Blinken’s exit interview with NYT. Put your coffee cup aside and have a barf bag ready. The sorcerer’s apprentice creative revisionism. Not a word about Korea. Seeing this monster and his “boss” (puppet?) in the rear view mirror will be a wonderful sight.
Short thread about the Canadian youth that was hospitalized for H5N1: Threadreader link – including a link to this NEJM article about it.
Highlights include: respiratory and kidney failure, multiple rounds of anti-virals, and what I’m taking as multiple rounds of swapping large portions of their plasma out for donated plasma.
https://x.com/biff248824/status/1875129162933104994?s=46
Thanks, Jason.
I’m fortunate at the moment to have an old but still viable bottle of Betadine spray (unopened) and a new bottle of Luca V-defense, which someone mentioned on this site a month ago. The Luca contains lambda carrageenan, which some hasty research tells me is a thickening agent rather than a gel.
Any thoughts on the difference in efficacy?
The full thread is captured here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1875129162933104994.html
I guess it’s really starting to sink in that it’s really difficult to back up war mongering bluster without an industrial base that is not subject to foreign control and convoluted and loooonnng supply chains;
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/03/business/biden-blocks-us-nippon-steel-takeover/index.html
Biden blocks Japan’s Nippon from taking over US Steel
re: Ukraine
I don’t agree but hell he is an optimist!? So I share it. Its just after New Years after all:
https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/01/geoffrey-roberts-nine-reasons-to-be-optimistic-about-the-ukraine-war/
Geoffrey Roberts: Nine Reasons to be Optimistic about the Ukraine War
By Geoffrey Roberts, 12/23/24
1. A swift end to the war is in sight: sooner rather than later, Russia’s battlefield successes will force Ukraine to agree an armistice that will halt hostilities and open peace talks.
2. Putin is holding the pass against Russian hardliners who want to prosecute the war to the point of Ukraine’s complete destruction.
3. Trump has no reason or interest in being dragged into the quagmire of the Western proxy war with Russia.
4. Public opinion in favour of a negotiated, compromise peace is stronger than ever, not least in Ukraine itself.
5. The Global South remains a staunch ally of peace and the closer comes a ceasefire the more powerful will be its influence.
6. Western warmongers remain vocal but their shrill militarism sounds all the more hollow.
7. The political tide in Europe continues to turn in favour of anti-war forces.
8. Western media coverage of the war is less propagandistic, more realistic, and increasingly open to alternative views.
9. The danger of existential escalation has not disappeared but it has diminished.
10. Pink ponies are on sale.
1. Peace talks before any hint of cease fire.
2. End sanctions before a hint of cease fire.
3. Return assets stolen with interest before hint of cease fire.
4. Ship all US/EU weapons out of area west of the Elbe
5. Do we think Russia will get less than demanded in Dec 2021!
6 Cease fire after roll back to Baker’s agreement on NATO
Trump gonna jump in this briar patch!
Sullivan: “Can’t we just, like build a time machine or somethin´ to solve this problem?”
Austin: “Don´t we already have one?”
Blinken: “I’ll call Bill may be he can steal one frome the Chinese.”
Biden: “Come ooon boys, we can easily patch something up. It can’t be THAT difficult. What’s the date today?”
😂👍
They are unicorns! (The horns definitely are not fake)
RE: Stand Out: How to Prevent Obeying in Advance
The article reference the small book On Tyranny that came out in 2017, when Trump took office the first time. I received it as a Festivus present and I could only manage to skim it, since it had such a strong whiff of Trump Derangement Syndrome about it.
Not surprisingly, the article mentions that the same author now has a new book coming out, just as Trump’s 2nd term is imminent. I suppose the message is OK, but in my opinion it was not at all aimed at the right target. Somehow our current “liberals” fail to notice tyranny when it’s their side banning political parties, cancelling elections, fining and jailing dissenters, etc.
But thanks for the link – I do need to cull my bookshelf from time to time and this reminded me to toss On Tyranny.
my mother got me On Tyranny for Christmas. i skimmed it and found it to be trite. also the comparisons were all to hitler, which i found to be lacking in sample size and therefore unconvincing. my mother read it and was amazed at how deep it was. i just kind of stared blankly at her and left the room.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/elon-musk-calls-on-king-charles-iii-to-overthrow-uk-government/ar-AA1wUE2i/
Elon Musk calls on King Charles III to overthrow UK government
The people in the UK spent how many centuries fighting to reduce the power of the monarchy?
Oh man. On Getting Ahead of H5N1: Declare a Public Health Emergency, Expand Wastewater Testing, and Increase Vaccine Research and Availability—Sooner Rather Than Later if RAND is losing their sh*t on this, we’re really in trouble. 2025 is gonna be so lit.
(bold mine)
It’s actually two different threats, in a way, because we have both risks of worker infection from infected herds, and infection from wild birds. And these are different strains. The latter seems more horrific at this time, but who knows what effective H2H transmission might look like in terms of consequences. We’re certainly gearing up to find out, rather than prevent it.
This is the stupidest timeline. With that understanding, everything becomes predictable with ease. Gov. Abbott just posted on Twitter that there will be no masking for H5N1, they won’t comply.
This year is just gonna be absolutely lit.
The only silver lining might be that people that reject public health, and refuse to be subject to it, will ultimately not be subject to much at all, except death. Only the living can stymie public health. But perhaps in death, deniers can strengthen what they rejected in life? And this is gonna burn through deniers the hardest, if it comes.
Stocking up on TP and paper towels tomorrow!!!
Otherwise no masks, no vaxxes and going all cash!
Fed balance sheet going in to Apr 2020 was $4.2T end of this week it is $6.9T. $8.96T in May 2022.
How much $$ printing can we get?
Drama update:
E tu, M T-G?
Marjorie Taylor-Greene endorses Milquetoast Mike on X.com.
https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1874971609196576780
The donkeys look to be missing one rep, as I am watching the Hill’s live feed of the quorum vote. Gaetz looks like he didn’t crash the party. Nancy got a standing ovation when she arrived.
First ballot on deck.
Weasels gonna weasel!
Mikey boy goes down on the first ballot. Too many holdouts. Now the clowns will gaggle.
He’s not “one and done.” Maybe “four for the roar” or “five’s not jive?”
I have to say this is not good for my mental health following the clown show. I feel a disgusting sense of impending doom … Mikey Johnson’s first act when he finally prevails will be to pass another $60B in money for Israel and Ukraine, so Joe can sign it as his last act.
I truly despise these people.
Massie, Ralph Norman (was he on “The Honeymooners”?) and Keith Self voted against Johnson in the first round of the clown show. Spartz and Roy (sounds like a circus act), considered possible holdouts, voted for Johnson.
All I can say is, remember the punch line to the joke on Mo’ Betta Blues?
It’s t-t-t-too late!
Yogi Berra said “Predictions are hard to make, especially about the future.”
One of my former colleagues described statistics as making predictions about the past–and pointed out how often we still screw up…
Since the right to bear arms has always been a political question I thought I’d take a look at how Bruen has been applied.
28 States have followed Vermont’s lead and now require no training or licensure to carry a concealed firearm, Maine and New Hampshire are the only States in the NE USA that have joined that movement.
The more “Liberal and Democratic” a State is the less likely it is to be a “Constitutional Carry” State.
And within the States that still regulate ( It’s done at County level) carrying a concealed weapon the more
“Liberal and Democratic” a County is, the more restrictive the right to bear arms is.
I’m in Sonoma County CA, if you want a concealed carry license here it is going to cost you a bit more than $3,000 and require you to take a couple of days off work.
Among other restrictions you have to be OK’d by an “Approved” Board certified Psychiatrist.
“Approved”…
In next door Lake County the cost is $300, an order of magnitude less.
You see the same pattern in NY State, Massachussets and other “Liberal and Democratic” States.
If you look at a map of The USA the States with the most restrictive gun laws have the greatest disparity of incomes, and the same holds true within the States.
This is nothing new, the importance of keeping the rabble in line has always been greater when the disparity in wealth is highest.
The “National Firearms Act of 1934” regulated the possession of Machine Guns by imposing a transfer tax of $250 every time a fully automatic weapon is sold, at the time this amounted to a bit more than 7 Ounces of Gold.
This was two years after the “Bonus Army” marched on DC and the same year the “Business Man’s Plot” was revealed.
Some things don’t change.
Elections to Watch in 2025 – Foreign Policy
I also think an article is needed with this title: Coups to Watch in 2025.
$250 in 1934 would be $5900 in current dollars. People who want to own automatic weapons are getting a real bargain for their money.
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq allowed every household to own an assault rifle. As soon as the Cheney/Bush administration dissolved the government, it only took two factions feuding to tear the entire country apart. SCOTUS has made an Iraq scenario much more likely in this country.
Up until the NRA started shilling for the gun industry, the only Vermonter civilian I met who carried a weapon (per Vermont law, unconcealed) was a nut case and full-bore domestic abuser who was escorted permanently out of his neighborhood by his locked and loaded arms-toting neighbors. Thanks to SCOTUS, there are a lot more of him in Vermont now.
This is a headline from the bottom of a link today. I haven’t read the story, but it seems as though Israel has bombed Lebanon every day since they all claimed a cease fire was in effect. I don’t understand. Hizbullah has stopped firing rockets at Israel. Lebanon has never fired anything at Israel. Yemen is not a party to the cease fire. Why are they all saying, “The cease fire is holding.”? Does Lebanon not have any air defense weapons? Not even Stingers? Is Hizbullah out of rockets? Certainly, the people of Lebanon are suffering.